The sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos is located on the hill of the Pnyx, the place where the Ekklesia (Assembly of the Demos) of the Athenian democracy gathered, to the west of the Acropolis rock. It is an open-air sanctuary where Zeus, the father of the gods, was worshipped as a healer. The epithet Hypsistos, which was attributed to Zeus as early as the 5th century BCE, has on the one hand a local connotation, since the god is associated with mountain peaks and hills and linked to weather phenomena, and on the other hand it is a meritological designation, as it places Zeus in the highest position among gods and humans.
The open-air sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos was founded to the east of the bema of the Pnyx. Numerous niches of various sizes and shapes, visible to this day, were carved into the front of the vertical rock for the placement of votive offerings. In these niches, the believers dedicated plaques with embossed human body parts, while the central niche, larger than the others, was probably intended to accommodate the statue of Zeus. According to one view, the foundation of the sanctuary is placed at the end of the 5th century BCE, while other scholars place it at the end of the 1st century CE and relate it to the cessation of the civic gatherings on the hill of the Pnyx. The inscribed votive plaques dedicated to Zeus Hypsistos show that the sanctuary thrived from the 1st to the middle of the 3rd century CE.
According to the prevailing view, the sanctuary, along with the area of the Pnyx, was destroyed during the raid of the Heruli in 267 CE and was subsequently abandoned. However, other scholars believe that the sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos functioned until the 4th century CE.
